In an article published by Time magazine in August of 1967 reviewing Judy Garland's concert engagement at the Palace Theatre in New York, an unnamed, presumably straight male staff writer made a number of sneering, dismissive and withering comments about Judy's large gay fan base, stating that a "disproportionate part of her nightly claque seems to be homosexual" and dubbing them "the boys in tight trousers" who "roll their eyes, tear at their hair and practically levitate from their seats" when Judy sang. The author even consulted psychiatrists to try to understand why Garland appealed to gay men, ludicrously concluding that "she has survived so many problems; homosexuals identify with that kind of hysteria. Judy was beaten up by life, embattled, and ultimately had to become more masculine. She has the power that homosexuals would like to have, and they attempt to attain it by idolizing her."
In a similar article about Garland's 1967 Palace engagement, author William Goldman wrote in Esquire magazine that her audience was mostly "fags, who flit by chattering inanely", adding "if homosexuals have an enemy, it is age. And Garland is youth, perennially, over the rainbow. Homosexuals tend to identify with suffering. They are a persecuted group and they understand suffering. And so does Garland. She's been through the fire and lived – all the drinking and divorcing, all the pills and all the men, all the poundage come and gone – brothers and sisters, she knows."
During an interview with Chicago Sun-Times columnist and talk show host Irv Kupcinet later in 1967, Kupcinet bluntly asked Judy about her "homosexual" admirers in response to the Time and Esquire articles. Judy's progressive answer was pointed and very protective of her gay fans: "For so many years, I've been misquoted and rather brutally treated by the press, but I'll be ~damned~ if I like to have my audience mistreated!"
It's very much worth noting that Judy's father, Frank Gumm, struggled with his homosexuality before he died in 1935, and of Judy's five husbands, three of them were gay or bisexual (Vincente Minnelli, Mark Herron and Mickey Deans). Roger Edens, her early musical mentor at MGM, was a gay man, as were many other men she worked with, dated, or enjoyed friendships with during her lifetime. Judy also discovered acclaimed gay Australian singer, songwriter and entertainer Peter Allen when he was performing with Chris Bell as "The Allen Brothers" in Hong Kong in 1964; Garland introduced him to her daughter Liza Minnelli, and Peter became Liza's first husband in 1967.
Following Judy's tragic passing from an overdose of sleeping pills in London on June 22nd, 1969 at the untimely age of 47, her gay fan-base was heartbroken. Garland's funeral was held in New York on June 27th, 1969 after a public viewing which saw 22,000 grieving fans file past her glass-topped casket at Campbell's Funeral Home. Later that night, in the early hours after midnight, the infamous police raid at the Stonewall Inn gay bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan took place. Model, interior designer and Andy Warhol protégé Jay Johnson (who was groped and assaulted by Judy's last husband Mickey Deans when he worked as a waiter at the Manhattan discothèque Arthur, which Deans managed) later stated in a 2019 article for the arts, fashion, architecture and travel webzine Surface entitled Stonewall Then and Now: Leading Artists and Designers Reflect on the Stonewall Uprising on the 50th anniversary of the riots: "When the police raided the Stonewall, people were grieving Judy's death—and the raid was the straw that broke the camel’s back. By the time of the riots, I was an out homosexual and enjoying the fruits of the city. I really believe that there was a correlation between the police’s action and Judy’s death. The Stonewall changed it all, and the gay presence became very visible, very quickly in New York." The term "friend of Dorothy", used by many to identify as gay/lesbian/bisexual, is directly linked to the lgbtq+ community's enduring respect, love, and admiration for Judy Garland by honoring her character's name in the 1939 MGM musical The Wizard of Oz. In addition to commemorating the Stonewall riots and the start of the gay rights movement, it's no small coincidence that Pride Month in many parts of the world is celebrated in June, the same month in which Garland was both born and passed away.
Remembering the legendary Judy Garland...
June 10th, 1922 - June 22nd, 1969
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